Summary and Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Author: This was play was written by Tom Stoppard. He was born on July 3^rd, 1937 in Zlin Czechoslovakia to a family that was forced to flee multiple homes in multiple countries during World War II. After his father’s death, his mother married a major in the British army and they all moved to England, whose culture Stoppard accepted as his own.

Setting: The play, although set in the “same” places as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has a very basic setting. At the beginning of the first scene, the only setting description is “Two Elizabethans passing the time in a place without any visible character.” The setting in this play is very symbolic—it has no character because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are described without character in Hamlet. The lack of description in itself represents how little depth went into the characters in their original form. Also, changes in setting are sudden and without transition. Stoppard only shows where the action happens and the characters seem to suddenly appear there, again a reflection of Shakespeare’s original play and how he did not show anything of these characters backgrounds or outside activities.

Plot: The plot of this play is difficult to identify, being that there is seemingly no goal for the action to follow along with. The play opens on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern walking and flipping coins. When it lands on heads Rosencrantz wins, and tails is Guildenstern. It only lands on heads and Guildenstern questions the probability of that. For a moment they forget what they’re doing there and then they remember that a messenger was sent to get them. Soon they come across a bunch of players who are desperate for money and offer up Alfred’s services for a few coins. They start betting against each other with the coins and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern win and then finally the coin lands tails up.

Suddenly Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are transported into Elsinore where they first see Hamlet and Ophelia go by and are then approached by Claudius and Gertrude who confuse their identities and ask them to find out what is wrong with Hamlet. After they leave, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin playing a game of question and answer and then decide to practice questioning one another in preparation of questioning Hamlet, however after a lot of confusion they end up deciding that Hamlet is upset because of the death of his father and his mother’s quick marriage.

Finally Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach Hamlet who originally addresses them warmly, but also has difficulty identifying which is which. He then goes into a confusing speech for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, causing them to question whether or not he really is insane and Polonius comes in saying that the players have arrived and they enter. Hamlet says there will be a play the next day and the Player, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern discuss what might be wrong with Hamlet and then after the players leave, the two discuss death.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inform the other characters that Hamlet wants them to go to the play and they leave. Hamlet enters doing his “To be, or not to be” speech and Ophelia comes in as well and the two talk without noticing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The tragedians are performing their Hamlet parallel play and Ophelia enters with Hamlet telling her to go to a nunnery and then leaving. She cries and Claudius and Polonius take her away. After this, the Player talks about the story of Hamlet, the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and then the concept of the representation of death on stage.

The next day, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are asked to find Hamlet, who has killed Polonius. They find him and ask about the body, but he refuses to tell them anything and says they are just Claudius’s tools. Hamlet is brought back by guards. Outside, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discuss how they must take Hamlet to England. In the final act, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear on a boat to England but they cannot see and they begin to question whether or not they are still alive. Hamlet is sleeping near there and they decide to open the letter from Claudius to the king of England. After reading that it calls for the death of Hamlet, they don’t know what to do. The two go to bed, Hamlet switches the letter, and they awake to hearing music coming from barrels on the ship. It is the tragedians and then pirates charge the ship. After the pirates are gone, so is Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell the Player about the letter and rehearse what they are going to say, thus seeing that the letter now calls for their own death. Guildenstern stabs the Player who falls, but jumps back up, calling it a mediocre death. He then continues to describe the deaths that they can perform. At this, it is now Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whose deaths are coming and they realize it. Guildenstern questions how they ended up there and how they might have changed their fate. It is assumed that they die here because the scene switches to the end of Hamlet where all of the main characters are dead except for Horatio and the English Ambassadors come in and Horatio gives his speech.

Characters: The play includes only characters from the original play of Hamlet, however some with a different purpose and personality. Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Horatio are all the same basic characters that they were originally. Altered characters are as follows:

Rosencrantz: Rosencrantz seems unintelligent on the surface and attempts to enjoy life and not question his surroundings—he just goes with it. He has many significant and meaningful lines, but he rarely intends them to be so insightful.

Guildenstern: Guildenstern questions the world around him from the beginning of the play. He clearly recognizes that things are not as they are supposed to be in his world. He seems to know (at least subconsciously) that they are a part of a play. He often makes comments in which he overestimates his own intelligence and ability to reason. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are often mistaken for one another and even lose track of their own identities.

Player: The Player has some of the most important lines of the play. He directly recognizes that he is an actor at all times and often tells the other characters that they are as well. He serves as a voice for Stoppard and gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hints about the false world around them and provides deep insight.

Voice: This play uses both dialogue and narrative voice to express the ideas of the author. Stoppard uses double meanings in most of the lines (both dialogue and description). He also uses symbolism through the “play-within-a-play”. This is supposed to show what they are all a part of. Stoppard also uses audience involvement to get across the idea that the audience should not feel for the characters. For example, Rosencrantz yells “Fire!” and then ridicules the audience for not reacting.

Quotes:

1. “Dying is not romantic, and death is not a game which will soon be over… Death is not anything… death is not… It’s the absence of presence, nothing more… the endless time of never coming back… a gap you can’t see and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound.” (pg 124). This is a significant quote because it is Stoppard’s way of telling the audience why they shouldn’t experience a sense of pain or loss when a character dies in a play—because nothing really happens to them. No one really experiences anything, so the audience should not feel anything for anyone.

1. “We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out. We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.” (pg 28). Despite being an inappropriate joke on the surface, this quote also describes what the players are doing on stage as they perform and what the implications of that are. They say that they are doing what the audience is supposed to be doing—questioning the reality of it all. Then they say that every exit is an entrance because the tragedians get off of their stage in the play and come on stage in the play that we see as the audience of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

1. “Death followed by eternity… the worst of both worlds. It is a terrible thought.” (pg 72). This is also a significant quote because it describes the characters’ situation. Every time the play is performed they all “die”, but they are all brought back again the next time that they perform—an eternity after death.

Theme: There seem to be many possible themes of this play. It could be a critique of Shakespeare’s disregard for some characters, it could be critiquing plays of Stoppard’s day, and it could also be that audiences should feel nothing for the characters in a play.